I haven’t felt this wistful since the end of kindergarten. Any other freshman parents feeling the same?

[Anonymous]

NP and honestly, I can’t relate either. I’ve enjoyed every stage my kids are at and look forward to the next instead of being wistful about the past. I’m not downplaying what you are going through and understand how this is hard for many.

9th grade was horrible for our oldest. We are so proud of how he matured and excited to see him off this summer. Sure, we will miss him horribly but his school is a great fit and this is an exciting time for him.

We also have a freshman who had a bad freshman year in other ways. The transition to HS isn’t easy for everyone and we are also hoping things get better over the next 3 years.

[Anonymous]

Totally feel this way about my ninth grader. This year he finally grew taller than me, he found an academic passion, his voice finished changing. And now we only have three years to go until he graduates.

It's a mixture of pride, optimism, nostalgia, and sadness.

He's such a good kid - I'm so very lucky.

[Anonymous]

Same. Soon to be sophomore boy is my oldest and it's occurring to me he only has 3 years left. It's going to bo by too fast and I feel like there were so many things we still need to do as a family but we're running out of time. And then I look at old photos and wished I had slowed down a bit to enjoy it more in the moment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Same. Soon to be sophomore boy is my oldest and it's occurring to me he only has 3 years left. It's going to bo by too fast and I feel like there were so many things we still need to do as a family but we're running out of time. And then I look at old photos and wished I had slowed down a bit to enjoy it more in the moment.

It’s the feeling we’re running out of time that gets me. There are so many things (mainly travel) that I wished we had done when the kids were younger. I regret not pushing my husband to do them. Now he’s been unemployed for almost 18 months, probably depressed and spends most of the time on his phone in the bedroom. The kids are 12, 14, and 15 and are just kind of existing while I try to do everything and maintain a job. The summer just makes it hit harder.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The next three years will zoom by, it will go very, very fast. Our youngest is a HS senior, graduating momentarily and off to college soon. My advice? Just enjoy your child's company. Don't focus on the academics at the expense of just enjoying your child's company as a person. It will fly by. Don't be one of those moms with regrets that they spent all their time worrying about the kid's grades and then it was...over. And they feel like they didn't actually spend any time just enjoying life with their kid, because they didn't.

My older child still has a couple of years until HS, but thank you for this advice.

+1. I needed to hear this. Freshman year has been really hard for DS both academically and socially and I'm just glad it will be done soon. As a parent, it's been so hard not to focus on grades when I feel like the next three years really count for college admissions. But I also don't want to stress him out any more than he already is. I just don't want him to miss opportunities in the future but it does make it hard to focus on the present.

[Anonymous]

Got one graduating- the wistfulness takes on a whole new level

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yep, that's the way it goes, OP.

This is one of the thousand ways that having children makes people more mature. People without kids see no difference in the 15 years between age 35 and 50.

Funny you say that. I felt something similar when I lived in California. The lack of seasons sort of led to this feeling of endless time. The years moved on without the markers of seasons to note the passage of one year to the next like you have in the northeast or other places.

Kids, like seasons, put the passage of time front and center and make it undeniable.

You’re so deep